UPDATED: Palmdale boy missing after school suspension found dead of self-inflicted gunshot

A 13-year-old Palmdale boy, apparently despondent over a school suspension, shot and killed himself Monday night in Kern County, sheriff's officials said.

Nigel Hardy left a suicide note in his room, and his father's gun was missing, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a missing-persons alert Monday evening.

At 8:12 p.m., someone called 911 in Kern County to report a suicide at a restaurant called Crazy Otto's in Rosamond. That's about 19 miles north of where Nigel was last seen.

Ray Pruitt, a Kern sheriff's spokesman, said a boy who had shot himself in the head was alive at the time and was taken to Antelope Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:05 p.m. The L.A. sheriff confirmed it was Nigel.

Ed Winter, an L.A. County assistant chief coroner, said Nigel had just turned 13 on Thursday.

He had last been seen Monday morning. While searching his room, his father found an apparent suicide note, the L.A. County sheriff said.

The father's gun was missing. While deputies did not know if Nigel had taken the gun, his school, Hillview Middle, was placed on "heightened awareness," the Sheriff's Department said.

The Antelope Valley Times published a photo showing scores of parents in front of the school Monday afternoon while deputies stood guard. The paper reported the school was locked down for hours Monday.

The Times cited a sheriff's broadcast that said Nigel was a cheerleader who had been bullied and gotten into a fight with a fellow student last week, leading to his suspension.

A woman who answered the phone at Hillview Tuesday morning said there were counseling resources available for students, but she referred questions to the Westside Union School District superintendent's office. No one there was immediately available.